Opinion

October 3, 2017 @ 7:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority or FINRA is currently in the midst of a comprehensive review of its rules and practices. The internal project has been labeled FINRA 360 and is said to ensure that FINRA is operating as the most effective self-regulatory organization it can be…. Read More

October 3, 2017 @ 8:57 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Robo.cash, an automated P2P lending platform that includes a buyback guarantee, recently celebrated its own steady growth during 2017 Q2, noting that its total amount of investments now exceeds €1.8 million. In addition, nearly €400,000 in loans were added in August alone, while the  average invested… Read More

October 2, 2017 @ 6:01 pm By JD Alois  |  

Marco Santori, Fintech Team Leader at the law firm of Cooley LLP, has published a white paper tackling the issue of “Simple Agreement for Future Tokens” or SAFTs – the widely used structure for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Santori proposes a path toward a compliant framework… Read More

October 1, 2017 @ 1:51 pm By JD Alois  |  

Just about every week we have been hearing about regulators in one country or another curtailing Initial Coin Offerings or simply banning them outright. China, perhaps taking the most extreme action, simply banned cryptocurrency exchanges and ICOs effectively crushing the nascent market domestically. Last week… Read More

September 28, 2017 @ 11:52 am By Erin Hobey  |  

In celebration of its first anniversary, Insurtech platform Lemonade launched a freshly squeezed product, Zero Deductible. Zero Deductible offers new and existing Lemonade members a ‘zero deductible’ upgrade, so that customers may make up to two claims each year with neither deductible payments nor rate hikes. Powered by AI… Read More

September 28, 2017 @ 10:42 am By JD Alois  |  

  Orchard Platform, the nexus of loan originators and institutional investing, has updated their ongoing graphical view of the online lending  world or “Lendscape”.  As the online lending universe has moved from peer to peer lending, to marketplace lending to all forms of online lending,… Read More

September 28, 2017 @ 2:00 am By JD Alois  |  

The global crowdfunding ecosystem is still quite young. When you compare traditional forms of capital formation to emerging online models crowdfunding is very much in its infancy and will take many years to fully mature. Prognosticators abound as to the success, or failure of, alternative… Read More

September 25, 2017 @ 4:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a “Guide to assessments of Fintech credit institution licence applications.” The purpose of the Guide is described as seeking to enhance transparency for potential Fintech bank applicants and increase their understanding of the procedures and criteria applied by… Read More

September 24, 2017 @ 9:18 pm By Jennifer Rimbach  |  

  Millions of Americans rely on domestic discretionary spending appropriated by the U.S. Federal Government, including everything from affordable housing and education to the arts. Agencies such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development provide programs and services that impact neighborhoods and communities across… Read More

September 22, 2017 @ 9:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this week, the Sunday Times reported that the UK government was examining plans to “clamp down” on the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS). This program is a tax exemption that seeks to incentivize investment in early stage companies – an intrinsically risky endeavor. By providing… Read More

September 21, 2017 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this month, Crowdfund Insider had the fortune to participate in ComCap 2017 in Monterey, California. The event focused on an incredibly important sector of alternative finance – local crowdfunding. Providing access to capital for local entrepreneurs while empowering communities to be able to fund… Read More

September 19, 2017 @ 2:39 pm By JD Alois  |  

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), the hot crowdfunding market that uses tokenized securities based on cryptocurrencies, is still looking to gain its sea legs. While there have been multiple phenomenal ICOs, like the recent Filecoin home-run that raised over $200 million ($135 million in just one… Read More

September 18, 2017 @ 4:04 pm By JD Alois  |  

  There is a report in Bloomberg Law that Federal Reserve Attorney, Gerald Tsai, has indicated the US is not that interested in creating a regulatory Sanbox or Fintech Sandbox – similar to what the rest of the world is embracing. Tsai reportedly acknowledged that… Read More

September 15, 2017 @ 6:14 pm By Tom Grant  |  

Bank lending regulations have rarely been thought of as dynamic or exciting but last night’s ruling by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to allow a lender to begin using alternative data in their underwriting could herald the beginning of a new era in lending… Read More

September 14, 2017 @ 5:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

This week the Australian Parliament introduced new legislation that will extend crowdfunding or “crowdsourced equity funding” (as the Aussies call it) to private companies. This is an important fix that will create a far more robust and equitable crowdfunding ecosystem in Australia. Earlier this year,… Read More

September 13, 2017 @ 8:43 pm By JD Alois  |  

Additional details have been reported surrounding the planned departure of one of the most prominent Fintech CEOs in the world. NYT.com has published a report on the “Frat House” like environment that existed at SoFi with CEO Mike Cagney reportedly being a prime offender. The… Read More

September 13, 2017 @ 2:12 pm By JD Alois  |  

There is a lot going on in the cryptocurrency driven Initial Coin Offering market today. In recent weeks, national regulators have acknowledged the existence of tokenized funding rounds along with the fact that many are really securities and thus regulated. The US Securities and Exchange… Read More

September 12, 2017 @ 11:34 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Orca, an independent data, research, and analysis provider in the UK P2P lending market, recently shared an exclusive update via email: the UK P2P lending market outlook is bright. “We are still seeing very strong growth across the UK peer to peer lending market with cumulative lending surpassing £10… Read More

September 11, 2017 @ 9:37 am By Jillian Sidoti  |  

A letter to Elio Motors (OTC:ELIO) …   I don’t drive motorcycles. Often on the Southern California highways, I curse lane splitting motorcycles and the danger they present to themselves and others. I have long said to my children that I wish they would not… Read More

September 10, 2017 @ 3:40 pm By JD Alois  |  

Earlier this month, the Bank of England published a staff working paper entitled, “Competition and prudential regulation”. The document is the work of Paul Fisher, former Deputy Head of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and Executive Director for Supervisory Risk and Regulatory Operations, and Paul A Grout,… Read More